This is part of a long-term collaboration with Oxford University and FioCruz Foundation to describe viral and bacterial outbreaks in real-time.

A firm called Oxford Nanopore has developed a hand-held reader that can sequence genetic material in minutes. The applications won't just be for healthcare, but for establishing the provenance of food in restaurants, or the presence of dangerous microbes in food factories or water supplies. It could also be used for analysing DNA evidence at crime scenes.'It's like the ultimate barcode'